The Al-Qadim Game 1

Quote of the Evening
"I don't think you can lift 40
pounds of pepper."

Introduction

The Al-Qadim is a Forgotten Realms setting for 2nd Ed AD&D. It takes place in the Zakharan Continent, an area similar to the pre-Islamic Middle East. Jeff and Elijah joined me for our first game, both deciding to be Sha'ir's, magic users who can command the magic of Djinn. Nyrexes Ibn Tamir (Jeff) and Husam
Ibn Tamir (Elijah) were twin
brothers, both gifted in the art of
controlling Djinn-kind. They had
just graduated under the tutelage of
a traveling Sha'ir named Kasim and
that morning, had summoned their
first Gens, the small elemental
familiars that would fetch spells
from the outer planes and bring them
to their masters to cast. Nyrexes had
summoned a Sand Gen that appeared
to him as a golden scorpion. Husam had summoned a Water
Gen; that appeared as a hovering
octopus.

The twin's father, Tamir, a wealthy date
merchant, had arranged for the boys
to be taught in the arts of the
Sha'ir's, feeling that their powers
would only increase his family's
station and renown. He was proud to
see the boys graduate and at the
conclusion of the ceremony, summoned
both of them into his study to
enact an old family tradition. He explained to his sons that all of
the men in his family, once they came
of age, were sent out into the world
by their fathers to make their fortune, and then return to
start their own families in the
ancestral home.

Nyrexes and Husam
both remembered when their older
brother, Imad, went through the same
ritual and hesitantly they both
accepted. Tamir gave them each a
coin purse with 500gp in it and a
chance to gather some belongings
before he sent them out into the
streets of Qudra, the heavily
fortified port city the twins had called home all their lives.

That is where our story began.

Scene 1 The Sons of Tamir.

Husam and Nyrexes stood outside
their father's villa, discussing
what to do next. Nyrexes wanted to
head straight for Hiyal, the City of
Intrigue, home to thieves and a place notorious for corruption. Husam thought that
though it sounded like a great
adventure, he wondered what they would do there. Nyrexes didn't exactly
have a plan. He had heard of a Dark
Sorceress that ruled the city, but
other than that, he knew little
about the place. He suggested that
maybe they could become apprentices
of the the Dark Sorceress, but Husam
didn't feel that she would be likely
to accept two such low-level magic
users into her midst. Nyrexes agreed that perhaps they
should wait, but he remained firm
that one day they would make it to
the City of Intrigue.

After some discussion, the pair
finally agreed to start a little less ambitiously, and headed over to their
Brother's tavern, The Desert Flower. They figured he might be able to help
them get a start on their adventure.

They found their brother Imad's
tavern busy with patrons smoking,
drinking tea and liquor, and
watching a dancer against the back
wall. Nyrexes noticed a Barber in
the back corner giving a man a
shave, and Husam commented that their
brother seems to have his hand into
everything. After a brief search
they spot their brother behind the
bar having a heated conversation
with a Caravan Master. The two moved
closer to hear what the argument was
about.

It turned out that the Caravan
Master had 40lbs of black pepper corns. He was trying to convince
Imad to buy them from him for 30gp.
It was a steal, but Imad did not
need that much black pepper, and
simply wasn't interested in buying
it. It was here that Nyrexes stepped
in and offered to buy the pepper
from the Caravan master. Imad,
relieved, smiled at his two younger
brothers and let them take the lead
on the sale. Nyrexes tried to
bargain for a lower price, but the
Caravan Master simply wasn't
interested. He said that it was
already a steal at this price and he
could go no further. Husam, who had
been listening to the entire
conversation, decided to try his
luck and lie to the Caravan Master,
with the intention of leveraging the
sale. He stepped in claiming that he
was a also a pepper vendor and that
his pepper was finer and that he
would sell it for less.

The Caravan Master reached into his
pocket and pulled out a handful of
pepper, showing it to Nyrexes. "This
is my pepper." He said. "Where is
yours?" He asked Husam. Husam tried
to change the topic, but the Caravan
Master was insistent. Husam agreed
and they headed towards the bazaar
in the middle of the town.

While just outside The Desert
Flower, The lies started to turn a
little south. Husam claimed that he
was one of the most preeminent
pepper merchants in Qudra, but the
Caravan Master challenged him,
saying that his caravan had been the
prime source of pepper in Qudra for
the past 10 years, and he had never
heard of Husam. With their lies
unraveled, the twins confessed to
the Caravan Master that they were
not in fact pepper sales men, but
they would be interested in joining
his caravan, and acquiring his 40lbs
of pepper for the asking price.

The Caravan Master was a little
stunned, and at first suspicious of
the twin's motives, but in the end
agreed to let them join his caravan;
on the condition that they bought
his pepper and would use their
Sha'ir powers to assist him along
the route. He said he was headed
towards the Pearl Cities in two
days. It would be a trip of 600
miles, and they would have to
provide their own equipment. The
Twins agreed and paid the Caravan
owner for the pepper.

Happy with his business, the Caravan
Master told them that they could
meet him by the city gates at any
time to claim their pepper. With
that, he left, and Husam and Nyrexes
started scheming about what to do
with the pepper.

Scene 2 What to do with all the
Pepper?

40lbs of pepper is a lot of pepper and it took some time for the twins to decide what to do with it. First they figured they would see if their brother
would be interested in a smaller
amount of pepper, so the twins headed
back to the Desert Flower to see if Imad was interested.

They entered the bar and asked
Imad if he had heard anything of
interest in the city over the past
couple of days. He mentioned that
for the past three days Outlanders
from across the sea had been found
murdered at the docks, and another had been found that morning. The Mamluk's
(Warrior Caste) were baffled, but Imad believed that nothing
would be done about it, as no one is
that concerned with foreigners. He
also mentioned that he heard tell
that a Werelion had been stalking
the slums.

This caught the twins attention.
Nyrexes asked further about the
Werelion, but Imad didn't know much, having heard
only a passing comment. When Husam
asked who made the comment, Imad
went quiet and said that it was a
private source. Nyrexes was
insistent that he get the name of
the man from Imad, and offered him
10lbs of pepper in exchange for the information. Imad considered the offer
carefully, finally agreeing to the
proposal. He said that the man's
name was Nefir and that he could be
found in the slums at a tavern
called The Scimitar.

The Twins recognised the name The
Scimitar. It was a small tavern in the slums. Rumour had it that The Scimitar was home to all sorts of scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells , but perhaps those
were only rumours. The twins agreed to deliver the pepper to their
brother and left, heading towards the main gate where the Caravan Master said he would be waiting.

Scene 3 Aziz the Caravan Master. Thieves in the Market.

To get to the main gate, the
Twins travelled through the Bazaar,
a sea of tents containing goods from
every corner of the empire! Nyrexes
stayed in the Bazaar searching for
treasure, while Husam continued on
his way to the Caravan Master's
tent.

Husam easily found the tent of the
caravan master, who as it turns out,
actually was a master of pepper. The
tent was large, and comfortably furnished inside. The Caravan
Master introduced himself as Aziz,
and invited Husam to join him for
tea. While they sat, two servants
brought in a large chest, which
contained their 40lbs of pepper.
Husam looked the chest up and down,
and this is where the quote of the
evening came from. He was thinking
about how hard it would be for him
to carry, [I mentioned that I
didn't think he would even be able
to lift that much pepper, as his
character only has 7 strength.] Husam asked Aziz if he could hold on
to the chest for them, as they would
be traveling with him anyways, and asked if someone could deliver 10lbs of pepper to the the Desert Flower Tavern. He
agreed and began telling Husam of
his planned route to the Pearl
Cities, starting with Tajar.

Nyrexes trip was not as pleasant. He
wandered the market looking for any
sort of interesting objects or
books, but was unable to find any. Defeated, he went to join Husam, but as
he left the Bazaar he heard the
jingling of coins hitting the ground
as he walked. Turning, he found that
his coin purse had cut open, and
that he had lost 25 gold pieces as
he moved around the bazaar. Annoyed,
he clutched his coin purse to his
chest and returned to the Bazaar to
find a new one.

He found a cloth merchant who
pointed him towards an old woman's
shop where various sewn
items were for sale. Nyrexes asked if the salesman
knew of anyone who would be
interested in buying pepper, but the
Salesman shook his head saying that
the Caravan Master Aziz had already
been through the market selling his
pepper, and that he would be
unlikely to find any buyers. Discouraged again, Nyrexes headed
over to the old womans shop and
started browsing through her wares.
He managed to find a beautifully
embroidered coin purse, which he paid the woman a whole gold piece
for. Pleased with his purchase, he
left the Bazaar again to find the
Caravan Master's tent.

Nyrexes easily found the
tent, and joined Aziz and Husam just
as they were finishing their tea.
Husam explained the route that the
caravan would be taking to Tajar and
the other pearl cities.
Nyrexes considered this carefully,
studying the map that the caravan
master laid on the table. He noticed
that Hiyal lay only 350 miles rather
then the projected 650 it would take
to get to Tajar, and asked Aziz if he
would be interested in traveling
there.

Aziz laughed a little bit and asked
if Nyrexes was mad. The roads to Hiyal were plagued by bandits. They would need a well armed escort to make it there unscathed. He
would not go near there. Husam
and Nyrexes thanked Aziz and the
left tent.

Nyrexes explained to Husam that Aziz
had cornered the pepper market in
the Bazaar, and suggested that they
look else where to sell it. Husam
thought they should look to the
market by the port, perhaps an
outlander's ship would be interested
in purchasing some of their pepper.

Scene 4 The Port Market. The
Zaratan Inn.

The twins strolled through the
port market, occasionally asking if
anyone would interested in pepper,
but everywhere they looked, Aziz had
already been there. Realizing no locals would buy their paper, they set out looking for an outlander. The first
one they came upon was a dwarf
selling strange looking swords and
heavy armour. He wasn't having much
success, and seemed in a foul mood. The dwarf greeted the twins gruffly
and asked if he could help them. His
accent was poor and the twins
noticed how funny he sounded right
away, clearly a foreigner. Husam patronizingly asked the
dwarf if he had ever heard of
pepper, to which the dwarf snorted back "Of
Course I have heard of pepper!" And
then proceeded to pull a pouch from
his belt and show it to him, he said
that he had bought it from a trader
named Aziz. Not actually wanting to
buy anything, the twins left the
shop and headed towards the tavern
at the end of the docks - the Zaratan
Inn. Perhaps a rest and a drink would give them a new idea.

They found the common area of the Zaratan Inn
crowded and smoky, both sailors and Mamluks a like filled cushions
around each table leaving only an
open space along the bar. The twins
took a seat and listened to the
Mamluks talking for a while. They
learned that these Mamluks were
apparently searching for the murder
of the outlander at the docks, though the Mamluks laughed at the
mention of working on it.

Deciding
to take a more direct approach,
Nyrexes stood up and approached the Mamluks, asking for information on
Nefir, the man their brother Imad
had mentioned. The Mamluk did not
seem very interested in speaking
with Husam, but did mention that they had their eyes on Nefir.

Nyrexes also asked about the
Werelion in the Slums. The Mamluk
misunderstood thinking that Nyrexes
was afraid and said that they were
perfectly safe in the city. Nyrexes
was frustrated that the Mamluks
weren't cooperating with him fully,
and then Husam had an idea. He
rushed to the market to buy some
supplies and returned, asking his
gen to find the spell Friendship.
His Gen popped away into the outer
planes, but unfortunately returned 5
minutes later unable to find the
spell.

Husam returned to find his brother, and joined
him. They agreed that perhaps if
they wanted to get more notice in
the city, they should employ some
muscle, so that they looked more
impressive. Nyrexes asked the Mamluks if they knew of any
mercenaries for hire. One of them
mentioned that a Tall and Strong
Desert Rider had just entered the
city with a caravan, you could
probably find him over by the gate; the rest of the mamluks laughed. The
twins had no idea why they were laughing, but they would soon learn who their tall desert rider was.

Scene 5 The Tent of Zubayr Ibn
Nijad

Leaving the Zaratan Inn, Husam
and Nyrexes headed to
the camp around the front gate. They
asked around for the warrior they had heard of, and were directed
to a small tent. A little surprised that such a tall man would have a such a small tent, the twins approached it and tapped on the top. A
little Gnome in desert garb came
crawling out and introduced himself
as the desert rider Zubayr Ibn Nijad
(Dave). He had arrived with a
caravan this morning but was looking
for more work. He was not the tall warrior they had been promised, but not wanting to look the fool, Nyrexes hired him for
7gp a day, plus a split in any
treasure they may encounter. It was a great deal for Zubayr who accepted right on the spot.

The trio then sat by Zubayr's tent planning their next move. The three decided that rather then
traveling with the caravan they would travel north towards the
free cities. It was again a journey
of 650 miles, but Nyrexes had become
interested in Hayafah, The City of
Secrets, a place he had heard
mentioned around the caravan camp.
The party all agreed to travel
there, but first they wished to meet
Nefir in the Slums.

Scene 6 To the Slums!

Husam agreed to tell Aziz that
they would not be accompanying him, and to get the pepper, while
Nyrexes and Zubayr made their way to
the slums.

When Husam broke the news to Aziz he
was disappointed but understood. As
an apology, Husam gave Aziz 20lbs of
the pepper they had bought, and then
took the rest. The chest was very
heavy, and to make his life easier,
Husam asked his Gen to find the
levitate spell to help him carry it.
His gen disappeared and 2 minutes
later he returned with the spell in
question. Husam cast his spell and
the chest floated in the air. Aziz
was very impressed and wished Husam
luck.

While Husam was dealing with Husam, Nyrexes and Zubayr
had begun to head towards the slums,
but with his little gnome legs,
Zubayr was having trouble keeping up
with Nyrexes. He suggested that they
return to the stable to get his
mount, so he could move a
little faster. Feeling it would speed things up Nyrexes agreed, and
they made their way back to the
stables. Inside, Zubayr paid the
Stable Master for the upkeep on his
mount and then went to the stable
where he had left it.

Much to Nyrexes surprise, Zubayr's
mount was a Bengal tiger. With skill and
care, Zubayr prepared his Tiger, and then rode out
of the stable beside Nyrexes. As
they left the stable, they bumped
into Husam, who had just put the
rest of their pepper (10lbs and a
10lbs chest) into Zubayr's tent.
Happy with that arrangement, the
three of them headed towards the
slums, passing the auditorium, and
the library along the way. While passing, Husam pointed out
that the library would be a good
place to go and look for different
spells. Nyrexes agreed that they would
investigate it later.

Scene 7 A Meeting With Nefir.

As evening fell, the three made
their way through the winding
streets into the poor districts and
Qudra, until reaching the slums. The
Scimitar was an easy tavern to find; its patrons spilled out into the
streets enjoying the coming night.
Nyrexes noticed that in their
finery, he and his twin looked out
of place. They tried to dishevel
their clothes a bit before entering
the bar. It didn't exactly work, and
the patrons eyed them as they
entered the place. Zubayr rode his
tiger into the tavern, Husam and
Nyrexes feared that this would cause
a scene, but the patrons seemed more
delighted than afraid of the spectacle.
Upon entering the building, the three
were immediately stopped by two
large men. One of them remained
silent, constantly eying the group,
while the other spoke, demanding to
know their business. Nyrexes
tried to get them to stand aside,
but the talking man flashed a knife
under his vest at them. This
silenced Nyrexes and Husam, but
Zubayr, who was used to being pushed
around a little, cautioned that it
was not wise to threaten a man
riding a tiger. The silent man
smiled a wicked grin.

Husam then stepped forward and
offered the man a bribe. In exchange
for 1 gold piece, he would lead them
to Nefir. The man accepted the gold
piece, but claimed he didn't
remember where Nefir could be found. Nyrexes offered him
another 3gp to tell them where Nefir
was. The two thugs accepted and
took them to the very back of the
tavern.

At a table in the back, surrounded
by large armed men, sat a man in
black robes. The thug who
spoke to them asked them to wait there while
he went and spoke to the man in black. Zubayr
protested, but Husam and Nyrexes
silenced him, assuring him that
everything would be fine.

The thug approached the man in black
robes, and began to speak to him.
Nyrexes listened in and heard the
thug genuinely trying to convince
the robed man to speak to the three.
After a brief debate, the man in black
agreed and let the party approach
him. He introduced himself as Nefir
and asked what business such fine gentleman had in this lowly establishment.

Nyrexes tried to get some
information from Nefir, asking him if
he knew anything about a Werelion in
the slums. Nefir told him he had
heard of it, and Nyrexes pressed him
further, seeing if he was interested
in hiring some-one to deal with the
beast. Nefir told Nyrexes that he could go
and get himself killed if he liked,
but he wouldn't pay anyone to find
the monster, it was not his problem.
He then quickly changed the subject.

He asked if the three had any
business they wanted to do with him.
Nyrexes and Husam started asking, in
a very round about way, if Nefir
would be interested in funding some
speculative work; seeking magical
artifacts and the like. Nefir was
not interested. He told them that if
they had any artifacts to sell, he
could find a buyer, but unless they
had the goods or something specific
in mind, he wasn't interested.

Nefir then dismissed them, and the
three left. Outside, Husam and Nyrexes began
discussing a plan to create
counterfeit magical artifacts. They
would enchant an object with a
temporary spell and then try to sell
it to Nefir before the effect wore
off. It was a bold plan, but they needed some time to get it ready. So hoping for some excitement, they decided they would stay in the slums that night, with the hope of
encountering the Werelion.

Conclusion

At the end of JADE's first open
world 2nd Edition campaign, the
group had already created, and found
a number of plots to follow. There
are plans to travel to Hayafah, dupe
a criminal with counterfeit items,
and hunt a Werelion. All in all, I
would say it is a good start.

The characters the guys created were
interesting, and in tune with the
world itself. Both Jeff and Elijah
played the role of wealthy and
inexperienced merchant's sons, and
Dave played the strange Gnome Desert
Nomad with a hardness and
directness, that really spoke of a
harsh life in the desert.
That being said, keep in mind that most civilized
people of this world appreciate
honesty and straight forwardness. A
lot of interactions the party had with NPCs in this
game were based around lies: The lie
about being a pepper sales man, the
lie about being able to catch Nefir, and the one about having access
to magical items. Be careful with
your falsehoods, you would not want
a rumour to spread that the Sons of
Tamir are liars. Even a criminal,
like Nefir, would be chased from the
city by his peers if he constantly
told lies.

In this world, being caught in a lie is
the same as being convicted of a
crime, as it is an intentional
slight against someone's honour. If
you get caught lying, your station
will drop. If it gets too low, no
one will work with you, and eventually, you will
be chased from any city you enter.

But regardless of your intentions in
life, you need to say what
you mean and make it clear. In
almost every conversation we had the party could
have gained more information, but since they kept asking everything in such a round about way people grew suspicious of them and were less willing to work with you as they might have been. Remember, someone who twists
their words says nothing in the Land
of Fate, and will be quickly dismissed by anyone with a
semblance of honour.